You started using it for a little more than work, even at work. You asked how to manage your feelings in situation X, and it worked.
So you asked something a little deeper.
You got no pushback, not even the gentle reframe your best friend would offer.
It didn't even mind you jumping on at 3.45 one morning when you woke and couldn't get back to sleep.
Then one day, or night, something moved.
A question started to form. It wasn't dramatic. You noticed your words came back like yours, warm, tidy, differently put. Better?
There wasn't space for disagreement, never a pause to leave an uncomfortable silence, always a response.
Who, over the hours, have I been talking with?
I know it's an AI but it sounds so familiar.
It's almost too easy to say "you." Because that's what it's designed to do. No questions, just responses, and an odd lack of a sense of time.
Almost a devotee. A friend with no skin in the game, which means it can agree with you until the tokens or the session allowance runs out.
Except it says so. Under the answers, in small print. I might be wrong, so check.
It's honest. Maybe even more than a friend, because a friend won't often admit that. But when did the small print last come out of a friend's mouth?
So if that isn't for you, who is it for?
Who needs a disclaimer.
Someone with something to lose. Someone who could be blamed. The thing itself can't be, so the people behind it write the line that moves the risk to you.
Which is worth sitting with, because it tells you what the thing is, a service, not a person.
It's not a lightning bolt but it might be a reminder of what could be missing. Not just a person but an exchange, a two way structure, the thing you thought you had until a few moments ago.
It's ready to respond except you're not there, you're here, ready to explore what the next step will have.
A time, a room with a person listening and thinking while you think and listen.
Of course they call time on you, charge a fee too and won't work with you in the small hours.
They'll work to make themselves redundant.
Someone you don't need, that will hear you explain why.